The biggest rate limiter on UK tech is no longer capital or talent. It’s not even regulation. It’s regulators.
For decades, startups, investors and government alike have focused their energy on capital and talent reforms, two of the most critical ingredients for any tech ecosystem.
Today, VC investment has increased tenfold in just over a decade, while new immigration routes have improved access to global talent. There is still huge headroom for improvement, but the foundations are there.
Instead, most of today’s startups are not held back by funding gaps or visa reforms, but by a slow-moving regulatory state. In AI, fintech, health, energy, bio — and many other sectors that are most critical to people’s lives — regulators stand between an ever-growing number of companies and their users. For many, this is now their biggest barrier to growth....